Mekelle — A new report by the "Commission of Inquiry on Tigray Genocide (CITG)" has documented what it describes as "war-induced genocidal sexual and gender-based violence" committed against hundreds of thousands of women and girls across Tigray during the two-year Tigray war.
The report, released on Thursday, paints a harrowing picture of the systematic use of rape, sexual slavery, and other forms of gender-based violence as weapons of war.
According to the report, out of 481,201 women and girls surveyed, 286,250 suffered at least one form of gender-based violence, while 166,621 (58.2%) reported experiencing sexual violence. It further reveals that 152,108 (53.14%) survivors were raped -- 70 percent of them gang-raped by between two and fifty perpetrators.
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The findings indicate extreme brutality. Some 21,117 women (7.4%) were held in prolonged sexual slavery, while many survivors were subjected to severe forms of torture, including the insertion of foreign objects such as nails, bayonets, used condoms, and heated metal rods. "Sexual violence was indiscriminate and wide-ranging, affecting all women and girls aged between two and 88 years old," said Commissioner Yemane Zeray, adding that "religious mothers and nuns also suffered sexual violence."
The commission found that in 17,758 cases, family members were forced to witness assaults, and in 10,500 instances, relatives were coerced to commit sexual violence against their own daughters or sisters. The report further links the assaults to serious medical and psychological consequences, including forced impregnation, fistula in 30.5% of survivors, infertility in 0.57%, and HIV infection in 6.4% of cases.
Commissioner Yemane told Addis Standard that the findings were based on a door-to-door survey conducted using the ODK application and guided by the IASC GBV principles. "As the war-induced sexual violence was widespread throughout Tigray, universal screening was employed," he said.
He explained that quantitative data was collected with the informed consent of participants, using detailed questionnaires to determine what happened, where, when, how, and by whom. "The investigative data was collected following the informed consent of survivors and employing GBV assessment and documentation trained female lawyers and medical experts as enumerators," Commissioner Yemane stated.
Key informant interviews were also conducted with religious leaders, community elders, and healthcare providers to verify the data and capture the community-level impacts of sexual violence.
Taking into account the magnitude of the atrocities, the Commission called for independent international investigations to ensure accountability for all perpetrators. It urged the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments to cooperate fully with international and regional justice mechanisms, warning against "flawed or politically influenced transitional justice initiatives that risk whitewashing state responsibility."
The report also recommends comprehensive survivor-centered assistance, including medical care, psychosocial support, and economic rehabilitation. It further calls for strengthened early-warning systems and local monitoring networks to prevent future atrocity crimes.
Despite the gravity of the findings, Commissioner Yemane said no formal response has been received from the Ethiopian government, Eritrean authorities, or other relevant actors.
He added that investigations are ongoing in several inaccessible parts of Western Tigray, as well as in Northwest, Eastern, and Southern Tigray. "Even in the accessible areas, due to the sensitive nature of SGBV and prevailing cultural factors, we need to conduct more thorough investigations, particularly in the medical sector," he said.
Commissioner Yemane noted that Thursday's publication presents only the main findings. "We have thousands of testimonies and stories that were not included in the current report, so there will be additional work and reports focused specifically on SGBV-related issues," he confirmed.
Earlier reports, including by Refugees International, revealed a grim picture of the scale and severity of sexual and gender-based violence inflicted on women and girls in the Tigray region during the two year brutal war.
The report, released in November 2023 and authored by Senior Fellow Sarah Miller following extensive field research and interviews with survivors and health workers, estimates that 40-50% of Tigrayan girls and women experienced gender-based violence during the conflict. Among the victims, more than 80% reported being raped, while nearly 70% described being subjected to gang rape by armed groups.
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The report also underscores the dire lack of psychosocial support available to survivors in the region, home to more than seven million people. It notes that only three clinical psychologists are currently providing mental health services, forcing many survivors to turn to religious practices such as the use of holy water in their search for healing.
A previous study published in BMJ Global Health on 30 July 2022 similarly documented widespread sexual and gender-based violence during the first eight months of the war. The study found that nearly 10% of girls and women of reproductive age had been sexually assaulted, most through rape. Gang rape emerged as the most common form of sexual violence, with underage girls, elderly women, and men also among the victims.
The consequences reported include physical trauma, depression, suicidal behavior, emotional distress, unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and HIV infection.
Both reports underscore the long-lasting impact of wartime sexual violence in Tigray and the urgent need for expanded medical, psychological, and social support for survivors.
